Gallardo opening day starter: Weeks hitting leadoff, Hart 5th?

[TURBO]

http://www.rotoworld.com/playernews/mlb/baseball?r=1

 

Though Brewers manager Ron Roenicke has yet to make an official announcement, Yovani Gallardo appears to be lined up to make his third straight Opening Day start.

Gallardo looks to be aligned for the April 6 game against the Cardinals and will be followed by Zack Greinke, Randy Wolf, Shaun Marcum and Chris Narveson. Greinke would have been a fine option to get the ball on Opening Day, as well, but Gallardo is the longer tenured Brewer and certainly didn't do anything last year to lose the spot, posting a 3.52 ERA while reaching 200 strikeouts for the third straight year.

 

and

 

Brewers manager Ron Roenicke indicated Saturday that he's likely to bat Rickie Weeks leadoff and Corey Hart fifth this season.

It's the spots they were in for Saturday's intrasquad game. "I think I'll probably stay with this for a while to see that it's where we should be with it," Roenicke said. "It's not that I need to see how it works, because I saw it work last year. But I had a conversation with both Corey and Rickie, and I think these are the spots they want to be in, also." Weeks will score more runs in the No. 1 spot, but he hasn't been much of a basestealer the last two years, and that probably won't change since he's coming back from a significant ankle injury.

[TURBO]

I'm not a fan of Wolf as our #3.

 

Also disappointed we don't have a true leadoff type player on our roster.

[igor67]

I'm guessing calling Wolf #3 has more to do with breaking up the lefties. In the regular season the designations don't matter until it begins to impact things like skipping starts or something like that.

[endaround]

I'm not a fan of Wolf as our #3.

 

Also disappointed we don't have a true leadoff type player on our roster.

 

Not sure why people always want a worse hitter to give more PAs to. What makes Weeks untypical? That he hits with Henderson in his prime power?

[TURBO]

Your typical lead-off is a high on base % guy, with speed, who can set the table for the boomers...

 

On our roster, Rickie is more of a boomer, that is all I am saying.

 

I didn't say I wanted a worse hitter to lead-off.

[MVP2110]

He is more of a boomer but he is also one of our highest on base % guys with speed who sets the table for Braun, Ramirez, & Hart.

[brettac1]

He's pretty much the best option they have at this point.

[TURBO]

Do you guys think that Rickie will have the speed he once had due to his ankle injury? I am skeptical myself, especially early on.

 

Yes, he may be our best option, I'm just disappointed we can't use him in more of a power/rbi position.

[MVP2110]

I don't think hell ever be quite as fast but he should definitely still be plenty fast. He would be a prototypical leadoff hitter if you took away his power imo

[trwi7]

Do you guys think that Rickie will have the speed he once had due to his ankle injury? I am skeptical myself, especially early on.

 

Yes, he may be our best option, I'm just disappointed we can't use him in more of a power/rbi position.

 

Probably not but there is plenty of extra base power from Braun/Ramirez/Hart that he shouldn't need a lot of speed.

 

I would probably put Morgan in the leadoff spot though to give Weeks more chances with runners on and to prevent the sacrifice bunt from Morgan when Weeks gets on base.

[derflotr]

Speed is nice if it's there, but largely overrated. Intelligence is more important. Considering the leadoff-hitter generalization and what the Brewers have available, he's the best option.

[jjfanec]

Weeks works counts pretty well so I am good with him at 1. I would rather have Gamel or Lucroy at 2 than Morgan but that isnt a huge deal.

 

Wolf goes 3 to break our lefties up. It is as simple as that. Marcum is definitely our number 3

[brewmann04]

Early reports from Tom H Weeks and hart have been scratched from today first game

[BradWI]

Hart having an MRI... that's never good

[Glennron]

What's the motivation behind splitting up the two lefties in the rotation?

[owbc]

What's the motivation behind splitting up the two lefties in the rotation?

 

I think some of the reason is that an opposing team may manipulate their roster to take advantage of two consecutive lefties. Especially if they are also facing more lefties in the series before or after the Brewers.

[southpaw121505]

It's really not a big deal at all which of Marcum, Wolf, or Narveson pitch 3rd.

[CheezWizHed]

Your typical lead-off is a high on base % guy, with speed, who can set the table for the boomers...

 

On our roster, Rickie is more of a boomer, that is all I am saying.

 

I didn't say I wanted a worse hitter to lead-off.

 

Rickie is a career .435 slugger. Granted, he has been a bit better lately (460-470 the last few years). But still, its not like he is a very big power guy... Ramirez, Hart, and Braun on the roster all clearly have more power than Weeks.

 

Braun and Ramirez are better career OBP than Weeks, while Weeks, Morgan and Hart are all pretty close.

 

Weeks seems like a perfect #2 hitter to me.

[PrinceEatMeat]

Your typical lead-off is a high on base % guy, with speed, who can set the table for the boomers...

 

On our roster, Rickie is more of a boomer, that is all I am saying.

 

I didn't say I wanted a worse hitter to lead-off.

 

Rickie is a career .435 slugger. Granted, he has been a bit better lately (460-470 the last few years). But still, its not like he is a very big power guy... Ramirez, Hart, and Braun on the roster all clearly have more power than Weeks.

 

Braun and Ramirez are better career OBP than Weeks, while Weeks, Morgan and Hart are all pretty close.

 

Weeks seems like a perfect #2 hitter to me.

 

Yep, flipping Weeks and Morgan would make sense. But Roenicke likes to be stupid and have Morgan waste an out in the first inning to bunt Weeks over when he gets on.

[BillyRed]

Agreed, much rather have Weeks hit #2

[monty57]

Brian Kenney, who hosts Clubhouse Confidential (the SABR show on MLB Network) has done a couple of segments on why it's bad to bat a power hitter leadoff. Mainly it's about how often the player leads off the inning and how often he hits with no one on base (something like 70% of the time). He believes it's a bad idea for any team, but especially bad for an NL team with the pitcher batting 9.

 

To me, Morgan is our best option for leadoff vs RHP, as he'll get on base at a .350+ clip and has some speed and baserunning ability. Not sure who I'd like there vs LHP... I might just go Weeks, Hart, Braun, Ramirez, Gamel, Lucroy, Gomez, Gonzalez. Lucroy (.291/.322/.547/.869 vs LHP in 2011) might be a decent leadoff option, but Kottaras will always catch Wolf and no one else, so with that stipulation you can't put a "vs LHP" lineup together with Lucroy at leadoff.

 

Depending on how he pans out, Aoki might be a good everyday leadoff option, but we'll have to see if he gets enough PAs to prove himself one way or the other.

[jmeks23]

I personally think Morgan or Aoki fit better as an everyday leadoff hitter.

 

As far as against LHP, I think it could just by committee or move Hart/Weeks up for those games. I also don't think it would be the end of the world for Gomez to leadoff in 20+ games, even though offensively he's obviously a liability. His speed can still make things happen the once or twice a game he would get on.